“Let me protect you.”
“You want to follow us around?”
“Yes.”
She rose, thinking that she very seriously
“I have to think about this,” she told him.
He stood, as well. “You want to go to the police in the morning and report me as a lunatic, and you want to put your life in the hands of the authorities. But they can’t help you. I’m not sure the police can even help themselves.”
“Look, I’m really tired. I had a few drinks, and right now I don’t know what I think.” She started for the door but turned back. “And I’m not Katie.”
He shook his head. “I know that. You’re very different, entirely yourself.” There was a husky tone in his voice, and she couldn’t help the very sexual images that he aroused in her mind, even though she knew that she had to be bordering on insanity to even be considering a relationship with him.
She realized that she had needed to know he realized she was different, her own woman, and she wasn’t sure why. And she was angry with herself becasuse it was so important. She didn’t intend to be a substitute for any other woman, so if…
If she did wind up in bed with him…
But she wasn’t going to. For one thing, he clearly wasn’t right in the head.
“So why the interest in me?” she demanded harshly. Too harshly.
“Because you’re remarkable,” he told her.
Suddenly it was all too much for her. “I need to get back. Heidi or Deanna might wake up, and they’ll panic if I’m not there.”
“Of course.”
As he said the words, the night was suddenly broken by a bloodcurdling scream.
The sound of helicopters over water practically deafened Sean.
Without that, and the sounds of the work force gathering, it might have been any other slow southern night on the river. Though he couldn’t hear them, he knew that insects were chirping nearby, and there was actually a breeze off the water, carrying with it the scent of magnolias. If he closed his eyes…
He would still hear the helicopters and the shouting all around him.
A couple of kids out in a canoe had reported the grisly find; they were now huddled on the embankment, wrapped in blankets, pale and scared. Sean knew they’d had nothing to do with the murder, and he called for a couple of officers to take them home.
“Oh, man, this guy is one sick fuck,” someone muttered near him.
He didn’t say anything. He knew the guy wasn’t sick at all. Wasn’t demented. He
“I don’t want her touched until Mordock gets here,” he said, nodding to Bobby, who would see that his word was carried out as law.
He walked down closer to the water, knowing it would give him no clue. No, this guy was more than some sick fuck. He was enjoying every minute of what he was doing. Population control. Leaving just enough hints to throw the cops on the wrong track. Dumping the bodies in the Mighty Mississippi, knowing the water would wash away so many clues.
“Lieutenant? Mordock is here,” Bobby called.
Sean strode back to the body. He looked down. He’d never become a dispassionate. This was his city, and he loved it, fought for it. He cared for its people.
But the dead girl didn’t even seem real. No head. Her skin sickly white, her flesh swollen from immersion.
Mordock looked up at him. “I’ll know more after the autopsy,” he said.
“What do you know now?”
“Dead two to four days, maybe. I don’t think much longer.”
“Decapitated before or after death?” Sean asked, but he already knew the answer.
“After.”
One of the cops standing nearby crossed himself. “Thank God for that,” he muttered. Then he turned around and walked away. Sean could hear him retching.
“Drained of blood?” Sean asked wearily.
“You bet,” Mordock said. He looked at Sean. “Do we have another vampire cult or something on our hands?
“Yeah. Or something,” Sean said. “Excuse me. I’ve got to call my wife.”
Mark might have been big and tough and fast, but Lauren still beat him outside.
Where she saw….
